Colorado is said to be the father of the full legal marijuana trade in the United States; this year, the reported tax revenue from marijuana was higher than what was raised from the alcohol sales. Reports that were released by Colorado’s department of revenue show that the states were able to generate over $70 million from marijuana sales while making under $42 from alcohol sales. Because of this, supporters that help pass Colorado’s 64th amendment (which made marijuana legal) state that these numbers show that customers deserve a tax holiday on Wednesday.
Director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, Mason Tvert, said, “Marijuana taxes have been incredibly productive over the past year, so this tax holiday is a much-deserved day off. This will be the one day out of the year when the state won’t generate significant revenue. Over the other 364 days, it will bring in tens of millions of dollars that will be reinvested in our state.”
The exact numbers were let out earlier this week and show that Colorado generated exactly $69,898,059 in marijuana products from 2014 to 2015. The reason why the marijuana industry earned such a higher amount of tax revenue than alcohol is because people typically buy more pot than they do alcohol. Another reason is because the tax system in Colorado is specifically designed to generate a massive amount of money. Moreover, the usual 2.9% sales tax does not apply to cannabis; instead, cannabis has a “10 percent special sales tax on retail marijuana and another 15 percent on wholesale transfers.” This accounts for approximately 28% of all the marijuana transfers that go on within the state.
“It’s crazy how much revenue our state used to flush down the drain by forcing marijuana sales into the underground market,” Tvert stated. “It’s even crazier that so many states are still doing it. Tax revenue is just one of many good reasons to replace marijuana prohibition with a system of regulation.”
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